Hey steve. I'll copy you when I finish my writeup for liability in BC foe trailwork. I agree that the insurance burden is ridiculous and shouldn't have to be eaten by volliesQuote:
Originally Posted by goldenshowers
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Hey steve. I'll copy you when I finish my writeup for liability in BC foe trailwork. I agree that the insurance burden is ridiculous and shouldn't have to be eaten by volliesQuote:
Originally Posted by goldenshowers
Hope this is the case (they lose). Is there an avalanche.ca write-up on this incident? I remember reading about it when it happened but can't seem to find it on the website.Quote:
Originally Posted by LeeLau
I've heard that it was expected but dreaded that the lawsuit would happen. In some peoples opinion the suit may have merit.
What LL said re: Fairy Meadows v. GAH. That's what I've heard from folks who've been to both (I haven't made it to FM). FM seems to have more mind-blowing and jaw-agape terrain, while GAH seems to have terrain custom-made for backcountry skiing (less objective hazards, and ridiculously fun terrain).Quote:
Originally Posted by adrenalated
Here's what I know about the lodges:
Vista
Most spread-out tenure. Generally speaking, there was more gnar and more pillows than Sunrise. But at Vista, you spend a little more time getting to the runs (and back up them). Big draw for pillows here is that there was an awesome pillow area though just below the lodge (V8/V9) on the GAH map. A fair amount of mini-golf just above the lodge too in the big, open valley at/above treeline.
Solid S/SE facing right above the lodge on Trundle Peak - trees, long pow runs, with some pillows and cliffs below. N-facing chutes as well.
Caribou Mt featured steep, loooong N-facing glades with an awesome pillow zone in the middle of the (very broad) face. Hard to lap that area because it was in the middle of a face.
West of Vista Peak had some sweet, long shots as well as some AK-style mini-golf and cliff skiing.
Sunrise
Smaller tenure means less skinning. A few less pillow zones than Vista, but had lots of areas to go on high avy danger days. Pano Dome is a 10-minute skin, with 1000 ft N-facing glades with smaller pillow features -- absolutely ideal lappable face. I think we did 7 laps on it one day last year.
Upper Mayvill Creek has some solid pillow features.
Meadow
Terrain looks amazing - at least as seen by my eyes from Vista (Caribou Pk) and Sunrise (Cupola Pk). People say it's damn good, but much more alpine than Vista and Sunrise, so harder to deal during high avy danger days.
"Front Door" run out the...uh...back door has crazy pillows that have been featured in many MSP flicks.
Sentry
Booked up 2018, 19, 20, taking bookings on 2021. This is the newest, largest most expensive lodge. Ping-pong, wifi, all the things you don't really need at a touring-focused lodge. I've heard the terrain is good, but I'm not really interested in it, so haven't asked many questions.
Your question: If I had an awesome time skiing mini golf, trees, and pillows under high avy danger at FM, which GAH hut do I want to go to?
Sunrise seems to have the most high-danger options. Vista was damn good too, just a tad more spread. Meadow is probably the worst for high danger, but might have the best pillows. Sentry...is the worst because you can't go for at least the next three years haha!
I cannot recommend GAH enough. We've done self-guided and self-catered (one week at Sunrise, one week at Vista), but I think guided/catered would be the tits too. Nice to go directly to the areas you mentioned without having to search them for yourself. I'm sure we missed lots of good areas, because the ski terrain is so damn good everywhere you turn. Maybe I shouldn't pimp GAH this much because then it will be harder for me to book with them, but fuck it, those guys did us backcountry skiers a favor I don't think I can ever fully repay. GIT SUM
Some blogs/TRs/beta
Sunrise: http://biglines.com/categories/ski/b...sunrise-lodge/
Sentry: https://vimeo.com/108679294
Vista: http://adventureblog.nationalgeograp...-photos-video/
Sentry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2pDHpsq3GU
Hoji at Meadow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vptvSMdYJdQ (Hoji runs freeride camps at GAH in December....)
Guess I better go book my next trip before the TGR gangrush....
Just back from a Vista lodge trip. Great snow, "A bit touchy, eh" was the stability description, but we still got some great lines in. Here's some photos:
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Just got back from a trip to Icefall Lodge (60k N of Golden). The whole trip was mind blowing. Awesome terrain, killer snow, big climbs, great food and guides. Highly recommend. Coincidentally sharing the week with 7 chicks from Telluride didn't hurt either :)
Nice! That looks like a long one!Quote:
Originally Posted by panchosdad
That’s what she said...Quote:
Originally Posted by zion zig zag
Not us unfortunately. A crew from Meadow lodge got a heli bump over there.Quote:
Originally Posted by zion zig zag
Looked like a good trip regardless.Quote:
Originally Posted by panchosdad
Friend has some spots at Vista Jan. 26-Feb. 2 - self-guided and self-catered (but I imagine he's organizing food). He's a ripping skier and all-around excellent human. I was at Vista with him last February. PM me if you can guide yourself, don't suck, and are interested.
Costs and details are on the GAH website...
Updating this for those with Golden American Holidays (CMH guide joke) curiosity. Prime dates are booked through the 27/28 season so perhaps irrelevant. I recently got on a trip that our group leader/applicant got via a cancellation from another group.
Tenure: The most important consideration for these huts IMO. The huts are stacked in 4 adjacent valleys, and share a border with Great Canadian Heli tenure. Because of this they have a strict policy requiring groups to stay within mapped boundaries for each hut. No problem if you have storms and favorable avy conditions, but in certain circumstances your terrain options will be limited. I've never seen this policy mentioned in any of the documents guests receive prior to the trip. This feels a bit bait & switch to me given that it's a unique setup from an American perspective, but perhaps its more typical and not worthy of mention for Canadian ops.
We had big problems with the tenure thing on our first trip (not informed until we violated the policy, tough conditions) and no problems on the second (informed by custodian day 1, better conditions). YMMV. There are posts here explaining the situation in greater detail from both my perspective and XXX-er, who was in Sunrise during my 1st trip to Meadow.
Terrain:
Sunrise: Varied terrain with many options for different conditions. The closest highish peak to the hut (Avalanche) has good ATL & NTL skiing of N, S, and W aspects. Alpine peaks higher up valley (Cairn, Corn) offer quality but shorter runs. The S aspect of Cupola has a few big alpine lines. Plenty of high quality NTL and BTL skiing down valley and near the hut (Panorama Dome). Pillows are available but not abundant, and not especially close to the hut (off W aspect of Avalanche down low), aside from the short runs above the lake and off of the Ridge of Melting Faces. My group consisted of very strong skiers with varying levels of fitness (dads). ~1/2 the group was able to log ~5K/day, and the other half started to fade halfway through the trip. We got 1 quality reset on fly in day. There was enough terrain to ski quality untracked pow all week under these circumstances. With no snow and a strong group of 14 you might have to get creative.
Meadow: Varsity level pillows and big slidepaths and not much in between. I agree with the prior comments in this thread that while the terrain here is high quality, it is very limiting if conditions are unfavorable. Accessing the mellowest terrain requires undercutting huge paths. High ceiling, low floor. The pillows out the front door are truly film quality (and difficulty). There are some couloirs close to the hut, and big slide paths to ski down valley.
vs. Fairy Meadows
In comparison to Fairy Meadows, the terrain at Sunrise and Meadow is scaled down in both quality and quantity. FM has massive peaks, glacier routes, and an insane number of pillows (including more variety for different skill levels). Hard to beat, but GAH terrain is still excellent. GAH huts are in better shape due to consistent maintenance and upkeep from the custodians, and sleeping in private rooms is far better than FM (one shared room for 20 upstairs). FM sauna holds more sweaty bodies than GAH saunas.
Its amazing that you have to put up with that kind of shit when Canada is pretty much the 51st state, you should have just called in an air-strike